Andres and Arte planned out a Rally Ruta Cafe in La Esperanza. Details I have are that it is an off road type rally and all proceeds are going to the local public school in La Esperanza. Schizz and Donny were on the extreme northern edge of what Arte and Andres call "Greenland" last time they were through. La Esperanza is a friendly little village northwest of Veracruz, it is inland from Palma Sola and is smack dab in the middle of the best coffee country in Veracruz, in my opinion. I plan on riding up at least one day with the Mystery Rider and make a donation to the school but I won't be in the actual event. Good riding in the area, you can connect with a fantastic road that goes up from Misantla to Naolinco and you will really, really like that road. Ask Schizz and Donny about that route and the food in Naolinco is great. Andres' family have more than a century of coffee growing history in the area. They really know coffee!

Very clearly and well stated Pedro. I am appropriately chastened and like your idea of a thread in the basement on this as I would be particularly interested in the take that the frequent Mexico riders and riding expats have on this subject. I think that you might admit that content sometimes diverges from your succinct statement of purpose.

So how far south of Mexico can you go before sport bikes should be left at home & you really need more versatility on the average roads that a DS would provide?

Ok, long rant but after reading all 10,5XX posts in the thread I'll chime in too.

Ya, white guy from Alabama... But go ahead and shelf the racial pretenses if you possibly can.
Is Mexico safe? Hell... It's safer than here!?!

Birmingham, Alabama is a city of LESS than 90,000 inhabitants. The vast majority are black. However, the "metro" area of Birmingham is a little more than a million population wise. (white-flight). So here's the thing... How in hell does a city of less than 90,000 people have one of the highest number of murders of any city in the last 5+ years?
I DID NOT SAY MURDER RATE as in murdersopulation. I said flat out number of murders!? It was only just in 2005 AND 2006 that the sole city of Birmingham, Alabama had more murders for the first quarter of those years than New York City, Chicago AND WATTS (in L.A.) COMBINED!? (>100 murders per year on a sub 100,000 population...) And that wasn't including two smaller cities (suburbs of Birmingham) which also have a bad history of having ridiculous murder rates.

Ok so put Birmingham aside. I live in a beautiful little suburbs. Very friendly. A town of about 4,000 people outside of a small city of around 15,000 (about 20 miles outside of Birmingham. Of corse if I keep going another 20 miles away from birmingham it's not the gang-bangers that are the issue. It's stereotypical white trash running meth labs...). VERY noted for the insane number of churches (and very large churches). VERY nice and friendly place. And yet after school one day a neighbor comes over trying to beat our door down & break into our house!? Get's in the house & my dad goes wrestling with him. I have to go pull one of my damn .30-30 lever action hunting rifles out of the closet and run the lever in his face to freeze him... (Cha-Chick baby!)

Fast forward a couple years. At the time (Freshman in college) I was 5'6, in great shape, but only about 130# soaking wet. We're out having a good time and this little gang-banging thug get's put off when my buddy won't let him dance with his date. And I do mean little (he was shorter than I was). Everybody has a good time, forgets all about it. We walk out of the club and he jumps out and plunges a knife in my friend's stomach, I run up behind him as he's falling back & catch him, turning around. Guy slashes my lower back 3 times & takes off. Of corse "nobody saw nothin"... So lets go over this situation. A 6'3 220lb (really well over that) outside linebacker on scholarship to a university in the south (we take our fooseball serious!) get stabbed to death by a guy about 5'5 in one big stick in the stomach.... Despite the fact that three out of five of us in our group (including him) had years of basic first aid training (boy scouts), AND that we were 3 blocks from one ER, FIVE blocks to a level-1 trauma ER and seven from another ER that was had a level-1 trama center. He goes into shock and dies before he's even on the gurney.

The MOST uncomfortable "unsafe" feeling place I've ever been in my life is Belize. By a mile too! But I never got hassled. Never strange looks, glaring or anything that'd even put me in "condition orange". I've been throughout the carribbean on cruises, never felt unsafe... Been all across the US & never felt unsafe. Been up and down the east coast of Mexico (cruises & car trips) never felt unsafe. And I never stay in the tourist "compounds" they're building everywhere. I'd still rather walk around Belieze with a rifle at night before I walked Birmingham any hour of the day without a pistol...
If somebody wants to shoot you, you're going to get shot. It's that simple.

So where is anybody ever "safe"? I stay my pasty white butt out the hood in Birmingham just like I stay out of the shady spots anywhere else. The only difference in Mexico and the US is at least in *some* parts of the US you can carry without too much hassle (and that is changing...) Do what my very smart grandfather always said, "You can't outsmart everybody, but you can out-dumb anybody". There is no limit to how aloof and inept you can pretend to be. Dumb people can act smart, but smart people are much better at acting dumb...

as a texan, you know low & slow is the key to bbq! :) i mean, yall are known here for getting those tough briskets into tender goodness right?

dreamland royally sucks. it's 100% BS. at BEST it's an overpriced & average tasting touristy BBQ joint. all it took was a couple idiots on the south (read rich) side of town & the rest of the idiots followed suite until the reputation was built.

1) dreamland doesn't "slow & low" anything. it's stereotypical "we stick it in a hot smoker for a couple hours at most and less as demand rises".
2) the sauce is... It's too much vinegar & yellow mustard and the consistency runnier than water.

now Top Hat in Dodge City (north of birmingham, almost to Cullman). Low & slow baby! it's gunna be smoking for hours & hours before you eat it! they're on about a 3/4 mile stretch of flat ground, surrounded with trees and little hills blocking the road in. when they fire the smokers up early, early in the morning the entire little low ground is filled with a blue smoke that smells so sweet its hard to not drool! (there's also a HD-type shop/biker place across the street, but ive never stopped)

if you're passing through alabama go to top-hat. especially anyone that's never had real BBQ, where it's smoked at low temp for many hours.

Ok, someone tell me if I HAVE TO HAVE insurance to cross the border. Are they going to ask for insurance verification? Is one company better than another? It seems Sanborns doesnt want to insure against theft.

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No, no one will ask for proof of insurance. It only comes into play if you have an accident.

On another note, I was invited to a cooking class this morning courtesy of the local mining company and state tourism. They brought in 2 instructors from Hermosillo. We made empanadas filled with carne y elote and they were damn fine.

Pero no hay fotos porque no recargar la batería de la cámara (didn't charge the camera battery) Needless to say Señorita Salma did not participate. I was the only hombre with 11 mujeres. A little culture shock for some of the ladies to see a guy who knows his way around a kitchen. A pleasant enough way to spend the morning.

Mexadventure has good rates available and the rep several different Mexican insurance companies.

Who is the Mexican company and did they pay out as expected on claim. Knock wood, never had a claim and always wondering how the carrier will perform.

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All three of our Mexico crash adventures have been in trucks not bikes, although one was vs. a bike (D'oh). The first was a US registered vehicle with Sanborns insurance and the last 2 incidents were in Mexican vehicles with Mexican insurance (AXA). In all 3 cases the Insurance Adjuster came within a few minutes and went to bat for us (really, he went to bat for the insurance company). But it's great to have him around. Otherwise you never know what the Transitos will try to do. They can try to pull all kinds of BS. One thing they like is to take money from the guilty party to call it a no fault accident, which screws the innocent party.

If you are not in the city it could take a long time for the Adjuster to come. It's worth waiting around for them, even if it's 2 hours. Don't sign or agree to anything until he gets there.

The Adjuster has a printer right there in his car and can hand out hospital vouchers to the injured. They can write out a check on the spot to the victim for vehicle damages to get it over and done with.

On my US plated Wee I have HDI Seguros, which I got through Bajabound. I have not made a claim with them so I can't comment on their service.